WOW and youngsters

Rev Hellfire

I've been pondering letting the son and heir play wow, so I'm wondering do people think its really suitable for a 10 year old ? Casual PvE play, anyone else doing it/done it with their kids ?

TheDoc

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

I've been pondering letting the son and heir play wow, so I'm wondering do people think its really suitable for a 10 year old ? Casual PvE play, anyone else doing it/done it with their kids ?

There is plenty parental controls and with an authenticator you have the ability to control the account, so your kid has to ask for you to log them in.

You can also leave certain channels so they dont see any sort of profanity, and obviously, the profanity filter

Count Duckula

I'm sure you've considered all this, but on behalf of the WoW community can I just beg you to please, please, PLEASE not let a ten-year old play WoW.

degrassinoel

if he's in any way sensitive, i'd say no.

even with the profanity filter the usual cack you see in the general channels could warp the poor guy, imagine him shouting "DIRGE" at breakfast?

besides, as an addict i'm already biased to say no, its had an affect on my life i wouldnt want my child to end up like me lol

Rev Hellfire

Count Duckula wrote: »

I'm sure you've considered all this, but on behalf of the WoW community can I just beg you to please, please, PLEASE not let a ten-year old play WoW.

From what I can see the wow community is made up of ten year old's and people who act like ten year old's, its a match made in heaven.

Jimbob 83

Tbh all mmo's should be 15+, people younger than that it may derail them or make them upset if insulted.

Rev Hellfire

Jimbob 83 wrote: »

Tbh all mmo's should be 15+, people younger than that it may derail them or make them upset if insulted.

I think that's all dependant on the style of play, I don't see many 10 year olds getting into raids, but wow has sufficient accessible content for solo or duo play.

Magill

No, not because of the profanity but because MMO's are just bad news for kids. If he really likes it he'll opt for it over other social events (Going outside with his friends).

Get him Call of duty instead !! MUAHAHA

Jimbob 83

Yea tbh get him a game like Gran Turismo 5 or something as he can pause/save that and go play with his friends, i honestly think an mmo will suck in a 10 year old way too easily and even with parental controls you are going to end up dealing with tantrums

Rev Hellfire

Jimbob 83 wrote: »

Yea tbh get him a game like Gran Turismo 5 or something as he can pause/save that and go play with his friends, i honestly think an mmo will suck in a 10 year old way too easily and even with parental controls you are going to end up dealing with tantrums

We don't do tantrums in our house And time on the PC is controlled in the same manner as time on the console. That's a non-issue, the only issue is the suitability of the game in terms of difficulty for someone that age.

Count Duckula

Also, solo play gets very boring after a while if not interspersed with the occasional group quest / dungeon. And however bright your little fella may be - and I'm sure he is - at ten years old he's going to struggle with some of the complexities of group play.

Dr Bob

jebus! no!
my 2c's
I love playing wow myself ,but its a massive timesink, and for a kid that needs to do homework , see mates , get outside for a bit and get to sleep at a decent hour , there'd be way to much temptation for "one more minute pleeeeeeeease" type scenarios.
Unless the kid has zen like levels of self control , at that age it'd be a nightmare.
I'd say 16+ would realistically be the youngest I'd let my daughter play Wow.
(since thats years from now it'll be "Universe of Starcraft II" by that stage , and being a girl she's more likely not to play )

If you are going to let him play, get two accounts and play with him. If you ponder through the single player element - and you are there to monitor group play, you can have a rewarding experience with your child.

If you fire and forget - you are letting your kid play in a world of miscreants and people who seem to be set to 'unhappy and frustrated' by default. Generalisation I know, but pugging seems to bring out the worst in people.

Honestly - go get Diablo 2 or any more recent RPG and play it with him.

Basically - get involved, makes risks go away.

Rev Hellfire

Don't think I'm not taking the addictive nature of the game into account, I am.
But I'll be honest its not a big a deal, we already restrict access to the consoles and the PC.

witless1

Besides the obvious addiction pitfalls which has been stated, the suitability for his age in terms of difficulty, particularly in a PVE environment is where he will be subject to the most scrutiny. Groups can go sour when a player isn't performing his role correctly (or rotation) which will lead to a lot of avoidable abuse which we have all dished it out at some point particularly when gearing.

In terms of PVE running dungeons gets you so far, but ultimately raids is where it is at and you will find it very difficult, nearly impossible, to get a 10 year old into a raiding guild, even a social one. Having done the recruitment officer role in the past anyone under 16 is normally declined as they have too many external issues controlling their availability. Homework, dinner and parents to name but a few. Even if you do get in, voice communication is essential and then you are opening up a can of worms which you have zero control over. 10 mins on our vent server and your child is looking at a psychiatrist.

I'd go down the Xbox live route with him, that brings an online element to it (e.g. Halo Reach) and you have much more strict control over how he interacts including the voice communication aspect.

Count Duckula

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

Don't think I'm not taking the addictive nature of the game into account, I am.
But I'll be honest its not a big a deal, we already restrict access to the consoles and the PC.

Restricting access is only half the problem, though. Yes, it might well mean he's not on it at all hours of the day and night, but it doesn't mean he won't want to be. If you cut him off because his allotted playing time is up then that's fine, but WoW is so addictive that might well cause issues.

It's a persistent world, which makes a huge difference. A single-player game can be easily time-limited. You can tell your child that his or her game time for the day is up and that they can carry on where they left off the next day. With an MMO - or any other game with a world that carries on without you - you're running the risk that they won't want to just put it off until tomorrow.

You know your son better than anyone else, of course, but at ten years old the temptation is there to get totally sucked into a game like WoW. Something can be damagingly addictive without taking up someone's time - the mere craving for it could well prove an unhealthy disruption.

Nehaxak

My son plays Wow and I've no probs with it.
Used to let him play on my account on my PC but got him his own account late last year (along with building him a gaming PC).
Currently he plays his mage the most and has it at level 84 and spends most of his time when he is playing wow, in dungeons with others or raiding old content with others on the server.

We limit his playtime not just in wow but on his PC or his other gaming consoles as any parent should, as he has school during the week, other stuff to do also and taekwondo/hurling/football at the weekends.
Don't see a problem with it at all, he's a pretty decent player too. Seen him knock out good dps in the dungeons on his Mage, he's a fairly nifty pvp'er and wasn't too bad tanking on his DK either.

No issues, no problems, school work not hindered, social life not hindered, he's happy.

He's 9 years old and been playing wow on my account since he was 7, like I said, only got him his own account recently enough and his mage is 84, forget what his DK is, low 70's I think.

Nehaxak

One other thing, when he hits 85 on his mage, we'll be running arena together for a laugh - or so he keeps telling me :eek:

Rev Hellfire

Thxs for the feedback Nehaxak, its good to get a parents perspective on the matter.

Sonics2k

I'm a parent, and a former WoW player.

I can honestly say this would be a terrible idea, whilst I think it's great your child is interested in gaming, playing a game like WoW could only lead to bad things.

It's a group based game (solo play can only be fun for so long in an MMO), and frankly, the levels of abuse and un-needed aggression are just way to much for a child to have to see.

Even if you remove General/Trade chat, then /s /p will still be active and some nasty stuff can be said in that game.

Seloth

Nehaxak wrote: »

He's 9 years old and been playing wow on my account since he was 7, like I said, only got him his own account recently enough and his mage is 84, forget what his DK is, low 70's I think.

I havent played wow in a while but the fact your son is 9 and is already at such a level just shows how bad I am at the game hah.:pac:

syklops

Sonics2k wrote: »

I'm a parent, and a former WoW player.

I can honestly say this would be a terrible idea, whilst I think it's great your child is interested in gaming, playing a game like WoW could only lead to bad things.

It's a group based game (solo play can only be fun for so long in an MMO), and frankly, the levels of abuse and un-needed aggression are just way to much for a child to have to see.

Even if you remove General/Trade chat, then /s /p will still be active and some nasty stuff can be said in that game.

TBH I wouldn't be worried about profanity that much. Looking at my own childhood, the worst I ever heard was in school, not online. Even t the age of 8, there were a couple of 10 years old who swore like sailors.

My worries are 2 fold. I sat down today to play some WoW. I had not done so in nearly 2 years as I did not have a gaming machine to play on. There are numerous games I want to play, and I am not that much into WoW. I sat down around 11am to play for about an hour or so. I had a couple of breaks because the seat is not very comfortable and my neck was hurting, but all in all I ended up playing about 6 hours today. Its like the time disappears.

Apart from the fact I dont think time should disappear so quickly for your son at the tender age of 10, unlike many if not most other games of a similar ilk, WoW attracts people from all ages, creeds, sexes and orientations, and because teens and preteens frequent WoW servers, it is also home to a number of, for want of a better word, miscreants.

For a lot of my career I have worked as a security consultant, and online privacy is one of my areas of interest. I have studied some of the methods used by predators online, and have seen some scary potential vulnerabilities on WoW. For example, the same person can log in and out of WoW using multiple IDs, multiple sexes, and multiple races(wow races). That means, one could target an individual, and ask some personal questions, but via different seemingly random characters. To an adult to be asked where do you live and where you go to school by different players in a 2 hour might seem strange, suspicious perhaps, but nothing more. To a child without the street smarts, he may answer seemingly obscure questions and put him self in danger.

While the World of Warcraft is moderated, it is not moderated enough, and there is too much going on for you or anyone else to know exactly what is happening on your sons screen, unless you are sat beside them. And if you are going to sit beside them for their 1 or 2 hour wow session watching their screen, would you not rather take them fishing for an hour or 2 instead?

red_ice

Cant wait till the day that child gets in a strop over something and calls rev a newfag as he rage quits the kitchen on route to his early bed time.

TheDoc

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

Don't think I'm not taking the addictive nature of the game into account, I am.
But I'll be honest its not a big a deal, we already restrict access to the consoles and the PC.

peeps are making WAY to much of a big deal bout this then it needs to be.

Lone Stone

I would never let a child play that game knowing how addictive it is, Your kid at that age should be outside playing with other kids if you let him play wow your going to destroy his social development guaranteed !!

Rev Hellfire

Any hows, I've had a look at the responses here and on other forums, so thanks for the feedback.

Basically if its managed like any other activity it's not an issue from what I can see, so we're going to ahead and let them play the trial and see how things go.

If there's issues with other players and abuse, well that's what the report function is for.

TheDoc

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

Any hows, I've had a look at the responses here and on other forums, so thanks for the feedback.

Basically if its managed like any other activity it's not an issue from what I can see, so we're going to ahead and let them play the trial and see how things go.

If there's issues with other players and abuse, well that's what the report function is for.

Who knows, pocket money might turn into you throwing him a couple of gold a week

Playboy

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

Any hows, I've had a look at the responses here and on other forums, so thanks for the feedback.

Basically if its managed like any other activity it's not an issue from what I can see, so we're going to ahead and let them play the trial and see how things go.

If there's issues with other players and abuse, well that's what the report function is for.

To be honest it sounded like your mind had been made up before you even asked the question.

The way I see it is that playing WoW offers no positive benefit for a child and plenty of risks. Why take an uneccesary risk with your child .. it doesnt make any sense to me? If seemingly well adjusted adults have issues with mmo's and their addictive nature then i dont understand why on earth you would want to expose your child to it. As someone said earlier its not just about restricting playtime... you cant control what your child desires or thinks about once you expose him to something. The last thing I would want my kid doing is spending his time thinking obsessively about a game.

MMO addiction is real and will be included in the next version of the DSM. Link

Rev Hellfire

Playboy wrote: »

To be honest it sounded like your mind had been made up before you even asked the question.

Actually I hadn't, but I was/am more interested in the responses of those parents with kids and especially those who have kids who have played the game.

On the whole the majority of that set have reported no issues above and beyond playing any other video games.

Interestingly enough this reminds me of the scare which surrounded Dungeons and Dragons back in the day, people going crazy not been able to differentiate reality from the roleplay, etc. etc.

-Vega-

I'm 26 years old, not a parent yet but it will be in the pipeline shortly. I really enjoy playing wow and I've been playing pc games in general since I was 18. This however is my mistake and it won't be my childrens. Every time I log on to do something in a game, I always play for longer than I should, and I neglect other more important matters to do this. All I know is that from my experience so far, I would definitely have my child on a much better healthier and more social path than I've taken. I mean I turned out alright, fairly active social life and I work, but I still have dozens of regrets and most of them can be linked to me spending too much time connected to a game and disconnected from reality.

From everything you posted, you seem to have the best intentions but you are suffering from the same dilusions as the rest of us. You don't moderately play World of Warcraft, especially at 12 years old, thats when you should be out having an actual childhood, making friends, going to the cinema with a girl and all that.

Anyway, wow isn't the worst thing. The worst thing about it is it's just a stepping stone, onto the next game fix and so on. Wish someone stopped me

TheUsual

No.
Maybe 16 - 18 minimum.

You need to be able to stand up for yourself and take no bullying seriously.